Here is Jack Layton's final letter, being made public upon his death last night. To my American friends: Canada has a multi-party system, and Layton's quite-left-leaning NDP recently became the Official Opposition. I don't agree with his politics, but he was a great leader and democracy is worse off with his passing.﻿

The City of Calgary radically redesigns its web presence, clearing out their landing page and offering a new experience centred around internal search of their documents and data bases.

"In the age of Google, most government sites still work like Yahoo did a decade ago ... The solution that Calgary adopted may be most remarkable as an act of institutional humility. Governments are big, complicated machines, and their instinct will always be to make a show of all the things they do. But Calgary’s site advertises nothing except its interest in what the citizen is looking for. Usefulness is the best municipal service of all."